THE DEAD STAY YOUNG

by Anna Seghers ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 6, 1950

Lacking the narrative drive, the emotional impact of The Seventh Cross, this is a sober monotone of Germany between wars which reflects -- through the stories of five families circumstantially connected several strata of society, the economic uncertainty, labor unrest, political dislocation and factionalism which made Hitler possible. Interconnected by the chance mechanism of the shooting down of a soldier- who was carrying subversive literature in 1918, this follows the lives of those involved. There is Marie, the dead man's girl, who is left pregnant, marries a widower, represents the poorer industrial proletariat, Nadler, a farmer, and his brother who had shared his wife during the war; von Ele, rich and ruthless, who is about to cast off his wife when he is killed; Ernst von Liavan, attractive, unprincipled, who loves and leaves many women until he makes a marriage of mutual interest with his cousin, is finally able to return to their land on the Baltic just before the Russian invasion; and Wenzlow, a career officer in the army. Through their lives, and those of their children as they are absorbed in the Youth Movement, the changing face of Germany is reflected in a panorama in a treatment which commands respect rather than sympathy.

Pub Date: July 6, 1950

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1950

Categories: FICTION